Money may not make the world go round but it does help keep the lights on. Running out of money is the second most common reason why start-ups fail, and there has never been a more important time to ensure you’re getting the best return on your investment. 

Leverage gig workers and freelancers

Being able to flex up and down has always been important, but Covid-19 has seen demand spikes like never before. This fluctuating demand, and the need for faster than ever development of MVPs, means that non-permanent workers should form part of your people mix. Online freelancer communities can provide low-cost access to specialist freelancers – Freelancer.com impresses in this space. Try and build lasting relationships with individual freelancers, as we’re expecting the freelancer community to shrink in the UK due to IR35.

Hire for potential rather than experience

The typical, and reassuring, way to recruit is to hire someone who has done exactly the same job before in an almost identical company. This approach makes sense. It minimises risk, reassures investors, and allows new starters to hit the ground running. It is, of course, expensive and time consuming. It can also perpetuate bias (look at the lack of diversity in all the major tech players). 

In contrast, hiring for potential involves selecting candidates based on their future ability and traits that align to your goals. Assessment tech can help here, because they allow candidates to show the curiosity, innovation, creativity, resilience and persistence needed to succeed in your business. Less experienced talent typically costs significantly less, and by providing them with opportunity to grow you could see your staff attrition rates dramatically decrease.

The world is your oyster... and your talent pool

One of the few things that we can all agree on in 2020 is that remote working works. In fact, the sheer scale of this success has led even the most conservative organisations to question the need for centralised head offices. If employees can work effectively from zone 3 in outer London, they can probably work effectively in Manchester. Or Berlin. Or Tallinn. Or Pune. 

This flexibility enables you to advertise your vacancies to talent anywhere there is wifi. This approach can bring diversity of thought, multi-lingual skills, cultural knowledge, and also has the benefit that there are very few places in the world where talent is more expensive than London.

Minimise recruitment fees via subscription

Recruitment agencies and recruitment process outsourcers can be an invaluable part of hiring the best talent in the market, particularly when your brand isn’t widely known. Experienced specialist recruiters bring extensive networks, databases and, crucially, a recruitment marketing budget to help you attract talent. All of this is great, but all of this costs money.  

Whilst multi-year recruitment outsourcing deals can provide great value to large corporates, they are often too rigid and inflexible for agile high-growth start-ups. Subscription models, like Accelerate by Resource Solutions provide start-ups with a dedicated specialist recruiter (or a team of recruiters), a number of permanent hires included, access to recruitment marketers, diverse hiring specialists and innovation teams, all while keeping your cost-per-hire low.